Voting Choice FAQ (2024)

FAQs

Who owns BlackRock? ›

BlackRock is an independently managed public company with no single majority stockholder. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. has a minority ownership stake in BlackRock with the remainder owned by institutional and individual investors, as well as BlackRock employees.

BlackRock votes on proxy issues when our clients authorize us to do so. We offer certain clients who prefer their holdings to be voted consistent with specific values or views Voting Choice.

This approach helps simplify the experience and keeps retail investors engaged. While these vote preferences are not binding, they give funds valuable feedback, which can help inform voting policies and practices.

A proxy vote is a ballot cast by one person or firm for a company's shareholder who can't attend a meeting, or who doesn't want to vote on an issue. Prior to a company's annual meeting, eligible shareholders may receive voting and proxy information before a shareholder vote.

Who currently owns Amazon? Amazon is a publicly traded company, which means it's owned by shareholders. Its largest individual shareholder is founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, followed by institutional investors Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street.

BlackRock showed more than 70% support for resolutions on civil rights and racial equity, while State Street supported more than 90% of resolutions addressing human rights and ethical use of technology. Vanguard voted against key resolutions on civil rights and racial equity, and non-climate environment-related issues.

1.2 billion USD (2024)

Larry Fink / Net worth

BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard have opened up voting on environmental, social and management issues. It's not true shareholder democracy, but it's progress. Jeff Sommer writes Strategies, a weekly column on markets, finance and the economy.

In reality, you own shares in the ETF and the ETF owns the underlying securities, which means its the ETF provider that wields the voting power. But ETFs can build a significant block vote from the investing inflows of many small investors enabling them to actively influence companies despite their passive reputation.

Does Vanguard have proxy voting? ›

Vanguard's externally managed portfolios are managed by unaffiliated third-party investment advisors, and proxy voting and engagement for those portfolios are conducted by their respective advisors.

For mutual fund shareholders, the proxy vote is an opportunity to make their voices heard. Common proposals can include a merger or other management changes, a change to the fund's investment objective, or the election of trustees or directors.

One of the criticisms of proxy voting is that it carries a risk of fraud or intimidation.

IPQS email validation algorithms verified that proxyvote.com does not appear to be active as a temporary or disposable email service. Recent quality reports have classified proxyvote.com with a low risk profile as most accounts originating from this domain are valid and safe.

BlackRock is allowing its iShares investors to exercise voting power during the proxy process, the company announced Tuesday. The nation's largest asset manager said the expansion of the program now includes investors with a total of $2.6 trillion in assets under management.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was the largest company by market cap in early 2024 at $3.1 trillion. BlackRock clocked in at No. 113 at a $123 billion market cap. Although the investment firm managed $10 trillion in assets, those were client funds, not assets owned by BlackRock.

Vanguard set out in 1975 under a radical ownership structure that remains unique in the asset management industry. Our company is owned by its member funds, which in turn are owned by fund shareholders. With no outside owners to satisfy, we focus squarely on meeting the investment needs of our clients.